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Protecting Our Environment! |
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Adopt a Fin Whale
In 1981, biologists from Allied Whale,at the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine, began a project to identify individual finback whales by matching dorsal fin shapes, natrual color patterns and any acquired scars. The North Atlantic Fin Whale Catalogue now contains over 25,000 photographs of over 1000 indivudal finback whales sighted from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the New York Bight. Fin whales reach lengths of over 80 feet and occur in all oceans of the world. Despite their enormous size and wide spread distribution very little is known about their regional population structure, behavior, calving ratio and ecology. Threats to their habitat such as pollution, ocean dumping, shipping, destructive, fishing practices and coastal development pose modern dangers to these magnificent creatures which narrowly escaped decimation by twentieth century whaling fleets. Help protect the second largest mammal ever to inhabit the Earth. When you adopt a finback whale, your contribution assists researchers working to understand the life-history of this endangered aninmal. |